Modern Quarrying April-May 2016

INDUSTRY INSIGHT TRANSFORMATION

Transformation beyond the equity scorecard – Part II

by: NV Moraka and M Jansen van Rensburg, University of South Africa

Following on from MQ ’s February issue, the second part of this paper describes specific initiatives undertaken by mining companies to transform. The most notable includes staff recruitment efforts to appoint historically disadvantaged South Africans (HDSAs), staff development initiatives, and community development.

Image: Grobler du Preez / Shutterstock.com

From the study, is seems that miners would rather spend their living-out allowances on building on and adding to their homes in the areas they come from, as this is where they will retire at the end of their service.

T he study found that recruit- ment of HDSAs (theme 1) goes beyond traditional recruitment practice, ie, using recruitment agencies or advertising vacant positions. As available candidates often lack specific skills and/ or experience, employers interviewed for this study often offer graduate and management development programmes. The objectives of these programmes are to equip new entrants with skill sets nec- essary to assume specialist and manage- ment roles in the company. To recruit employees for more senior positions, all participants indicated that their recruitment drives involved rigorous headhunting efforts in search of HDSAs. Staff development is another priority in support of transformation. Indeed, all

him how to dig in the ground; we teach him how to work underground; we teach him how to do drilling, blasting; we teach him how to drive trucks ... we teach him more and more’. Fast-tracking of women seems to be a key priority in the mining industry (a notion which was supported by six participants). This finding suggests that development of women and gender diversity are taken seriously. Respondents did not emphasise talent management (mentioned by only one participant), or diversity training as being of particular importance addressing transformational challenges. Staff retention efforts (the third theme) were described by three partici- pants. In order to retain staff, these partic- ipants reported that scarcity allowances

participants reported that they offer bur- saries to eligible staff members to pursue studies at higher education institutions as well as on-the-job training and various external training opportunities. Although training opportunities are available to all staff members, it became clear that pref- erence was given to HDSAs. Insightful quotes in support of this deduction were made by participants 2 and 9: ‘The government expects us to pay, spend 2,0% on payroll on training ... we are making sure that we are focusing most of our training on core and critical skills, but we are looking specifically at the HDSAs that they get it’. Participant 9: ‘We try to train people to go up, getting more core skills. So if we have got a local guy near a mine and he comes from a local community, we teach

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MODERN QUARRYING April - May 2016